With the increased interest in offshore recovery of oil, various types of drilling platforms have been developed for drilling on the bottom of the ocean from drilling rigs supported above the surface of the water. One type of drilling platform that is particularly well suited to operation in arctic waters in which ice flows are encountered is the monopod platform with ice cutters rotating around the outside of the supporting column. This platform derives its name from the fact that the platform is supported on a single vertical column from a submerged base structure. The buoyancy of the base structure can be controlled to vary the level of the base, permitting the platform to be utilized by supporting it directly on the bottom of the ocean at the drill site, or operating the platform as a semi-submersible floating platform.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,184, for example, there is described a monopod drilling platform which rests on the ocean floor and can be shifted laterally to permit drilling of a number of wells in a relatively small area of the ocean floor. It is common to slant drill such wells so that the wells enter the producing formation at widely spaced locations.
When producing formations are relatively shallow, slant drilling of a number of wells from a common location may not provide as widely spaced locations as is desired for efficient operation. While more drilling sites may be prepared with fewer wells from each site, this obviously increases the expense of developing a field.